Incivility in the workplace: A study of nursing and midwifery staff in Northern Ghana

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionThe purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence, sources and effect of incivility in a tertiary hospital in Northern Ghana.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 321 nurses at a tertiary-level hospital in Northern Ghana. Between October and November 2022, participating nurses responded to an online or self-administered questionnaire using the 43-item incivility scale developed by Guidroz and colleagues. Data collected was cleaned in Microsoft Excel and transported into SPSS version 21 for further statistical analysis.ResultsTwo-fifths of the participants (n=131, 40.8%) were aged 31-35 years. Over 50% of the participants were males (n=161), married (n=187) and had a Bachelor’s degree (n=166). A little over 30% of the participants had worked in the nursing profession for more than 8 years.ConclusionThe participants reported an average incidence of 54.5% of incivility sometimes, most of the time, and all the time. Moreover, in terms of incivility reported under the subscales, the average greatest prevalence recorded was displaced frustration under patients/relations, with a rate of 78.9%. The least average prevalence rate indicated under the subscales was from abusive supervision under direct supervisors with a rate of 30.7%.The existence of incivility in healthcare settings does not support a setting where healthcare workers and patients may operate safely. Therefore, it is advised that frequent in-service training sessions on what constitutes incivility is held for nurses and the hospital’s general staff in order to raise awareness of the negative impacts of incivility.